News about Michael Aspel

This Is Your Life is reportedly set to return to screens after two decades - leaving fans of the original show harking back to the good days.  The biographical TV show first aired in July 1955 before coming off screens in 2003,  under the presentership of Eamonn Andrews and Michael Aspel, while one-off shows aired in 1997, fronted by Trevor McDonald and in 2012 hosted by Ant and Dec. Throughout the show's history, both celebrities and non-famous members of the public would be surprised with their life stories presented in the distinguishable Big Red Book - with the surprise element integral to the show. 

After leaving wives Dian Sessions, television scriptwriter Ann Reed, and actress Elizabeth Power, the 90-year-old broadcaster who hosted the celebrity biography programme This Is Your Life and chat show Aspel & Company said he was 'full of regrets' after leaving wives. In an interview this weekend, he said, 'It's mostly sadness when I look back on my life.' I'm not talking about my work, but I do wish I had remained an actor, but I regret that I left three wives. "It was complete madness" I wake up in the evening and sit on a mattress and think, "It was utter madness."

He is best known for his feature interviews with the world's most famous celebrities. Now, British television and radio presenter Michael Aspel is spilling the beans on what celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Gere, looked like behind the scenes. Michael, 90, 90, who is best known for hosting shows such as This Is Your Life and Aspel & Company, is returning to the airwaves for a limited one-off show on Boom Radio aimed at baby boomers. He's being reunited with Graham Dene as part of a day of remembrances for commercial radio's 50th anniversary. Aspel, a pioneer of London's Capital Radio from 1974 to 1984, and Dene, a former Capital Radio presenter, will be on the programme on Sunday, October 8. It's been way too long.' Believe me, I had no interest in going back to radio at all. I miss it a lot,' Aspel said, as he reveals what celebrities looked like behind the scenes of his interviews...

Andy McConnell, an antiques Roadshow expert, has earned hundreds of thousands of pounds from antiques, but claims that investing in property was the best money decision he has ever made. Donna Ferguson, the BBC show's glass specialist, tells Donna Ferguson that he bought his first house in 1979 for £2,750. Fiona Bruce, 'a woman with swagger,' rather than her predecessor Michael Aspel, says he likes working with hosts Fiona Bruce, 'a woman with swagger.' Now 70, he lives mortgage-free in Rye, East Sussex, and he enjoys giving talks to raise funds for charities.

They were the couple who were so often at each others throats that it was impossible to tell how they stayed together. When they appeared on hit BBC show Driving School in 1997, Maureen and Dave Rees, from Cardiff, became one of Britain's first reality TV stars. The then-55-year-old mother of three was learning to drive and her long-suffering husband had reportedly taken on the role of instructor, but not surprisingly. Maudy's travels in her blue Lada name Betsy - as well as her ferocious verbal confrontations with her husband - were played out before the nation. A clip (bottom right) from Maureen's first episode, when Dave screamed in terror and grabbed the steering wheel as Dave screamed in terror and grabbed the wheel. On the seventh attempt, Maureen, who is now 81 and still living in Cardiff, did pass her driving exam. The entire series describing her attempts was recently on BBC iPlayer.

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Prince Harry's admission to Tom Bradby that the Royal Family isn't a bigote should put them in a quandry over the Ripple of Hope Award, which he and Meghan received last month from Robert Kennedy's daughter Kerry. She praised the Royal Family's 'heroic' stance against structural racism amid a Hollywood type love-in. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa was a former recipient. A N Wilson, a polemicist, later described Harry and Meghan as 'preposterous', adding, 'Their acceptance of this award is a monstrous self-conceit.' Now that Harry concedes there is no racism, will he and Meghan be speed dialling Kerry Kennedy to have the honour rescinded?And how much of his estimated £16million publishing windfall will Harry actually donate to charity? Last year, his publishers discussed the possibility of donating 'at least' £1.5 million.' When Tony Blair wrote his memoir, A Journey in 2010, he donated the entire lot – more than the £4.6 million increase – to the Royal British Legion. Given Harry's much-criticised focus on his Afghan scalp-count, might he not think of doing something similar? Michael Aspel, 90, whose stellar BBC presenting career turned Leslie Thomas' 1966 book The Virgin Soldiers into a media sensation, makes a happy birthday. Michael, who was seen in his prime, interviewed Leslie for a teatime TV show, breaking the BBC's ban on using the term 'virgin' before the watershed. He had to give a warning: The Virgin Soldiers,' he said solemnly, was a book.' Don't leave it around where the kids can pick it up.' Thomas, a jubilant, said: "Human curiosity being what it is, the publishers were sold out by the next afternoon.' I had a bestseller.'